Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/114

104 seemed to stifle me, and I could only live by thinking of Wildfell Hall.

At last, one morning, she entered my chamber with such intelligence that my resolution was taken before she had ceased to speak. While she dressed me, I explained to her my intentions and what assistance I should require from her, and told her which of my things she was to pack up, and what she was to leave behind for herself, as I had no other means of recompencing her for this sudden dismissal, after her long and faithful service—a circumstance I most deeply regretted but could not avoid.

"And what will you do, Rachel?" said I—"will you go home, or seek another place?"

"I have no home, ma'm, but with you," she replied; "and if I leave you, I'll never go into place again as long as I live,"

"But I can't afford to live like a lady, now," returned I: "I must be my own maid and my child's nurse."